Knights, Ninja, and Teen Angst
by RainbowDitoo
Summary: When the ninja try to return home to Ninjago from the land of the Oni and the Dragon, something goes wrong and they end up in Knighton. Meanwhile the knights are still recovering mentally from the attack of the collosus and now have to figure out a way to help the ninja back home.
1. Chapter 1

The weather outside was bright and warm, sunlight touching almost everything in Knighton with gentle grace. Birds chirped in their nests and squire-bots lead their herds of sheep or cattle here and there. Even children who usually stayed inside all day had gathered their things to play in the sun. Yet despite the bright warmth of the outdoors, Clay Moorington had decided to stay in the Fortrex. Mostly to train, of course. And after a few hours of training alone, dear princess Macy Halbert had joined him.  
Her mace was a heavy comfort in her hands and she gripped its handle tightly to keep herself from accidentally throwing it. It wasn't often the two of them got to train one-on-one, but when they did, it was a tough and even match for both. Truth was, they were both a little rusty. Clay had been working alone more often trying to get used to using his non-dominant arm to hold and wield his sword. And Macy had just been avoiding training alone with one of the other knights in general. It brought back bad memories of what Clay had forced her to do to him when he was stone. Now that they were finally facing each other again though, they began to slip back into the flow of battle easily. Macy dodged a blow from Clay quickly and darted away, a grin plastered on her face.  
"You missed me," She teased lightly, dodging another attack when her leader rushed at her, "And again."  
Clay rolled his eyes, switching to defense as Macy started to attack him in return.  
"Yeah I noticed. Thanks though."  
He ducked and swept Macy's leg out from under her with the side of his blade, satisfied with how she fell. A couple of seconds later he offered his dominant hand to help her back up.  
The strange thing with his right hand- and arm in general- was that it constantly glowed now. Sometimes it was red or yellow, and other times it turned a sickly green. Most of the time it was just a bright blue though, as was the color it was now. Macy took his hand, flinched slightly at the strange buzzing feeling it had, and stood.  
"Ugh," She started, "That makes 5 for me and 6 for you. Neck and Neck."  
Clay shrugged, rubbing at his wrist at the sudden flash of pain that had shot through it when he lifted Macy.  
"Yeah well it'll probably be tied next round. You're good."  
At this, Macy snorted and hefted her mace over her shoulder.  
"Or you'll kick my ass again. It could go any way, you know."  
He shook his head and laughed quietly to himself. He had missed this. Halfway through the laugh though he doubled over a bit, left arm moving to clutch his right one. White overtook the blue color, stayed for a couple of seconds, then slowly began to fade back to blue. Macy was at her leader's side at once, eyebrows knit  
together worriedly.  
"Clay, you okay?"  
His jaw was clenched but he managed a grunt of "I'm fine." which only made Macy  
more certain that he was hurting again. She put an arm around his shoulder.  
"Don't say you're fine when you're hunched over like an old lady. If you're hurting  
that bad then we need to stop."  
But Clay was stubborn. He shook his head then looked up at Macy, eyes narrowed in  
determination to push through the pain.  
"No, I need to-"  
The holochamber wall lit up suddenly, cutting Clay off. Ava's face filled the bright  
space, her dark eyes were looking at something else, but it was clear that she could  
tell that both knights were in the room. She swept a strand of brown hair out of  
her face before talking.  
"Sorry to interrupt, but we've got some weird signals coming from south of  
Organica. Strong magicy stuff."  
Macy blinked, distracted from scolding Clay.  
"Organica? That little town that makes teas and grows herbs?"  
She nodded, typing something into the complex computer system the Fortrex had.  
"The exact place. I've already let Merlock 2.0 know about it and he says we should  
check it out. I'd get ready for a fight if I were you, we don't know what's out  
there, but it could be anything."  
Clay shook out his hand, shoving Macy off of him in the process. Free from her grip  
he hefted his sword up onto his shoulder.  
"Thanks Ava," He said, "We'll get ready."  
The girl nodded absently before flickering off of the wall, leaving it blank and  
white once more. When she was gone, Macy shot Clay a fierce glare.  
"You're lucky she popped in." she said, "And we'll finish this conversation later."  
Clay pretended not to hear her.


	2. Chapter 2

Well it was official. After all that nonsense and trouble in the realm of The Oni and The Dragons they had taken in order to get back to Ninjago, they were still incredibly lost. Jay decided to blame Cole for the fact that they had no idea where they were.

"You were the one who poured the traveler's tea!" He shouted, "So it's your fault that we're still not home!"

Cole retaliated.

"Says the person who was in charge of getting the ingredients! If anyone messed up, it's you!"

Zane stepped in between the two, eyebrows knit together in annoyance at the entire situation. He had numerous scratches over his titanium body and was no longer able to disguise himself. It was adding insult to injury, really.

"Arguing about it isn't going to return us home," He said angrily, "If anything, you're keeping Wu from checking out the surroundings."

At this, the four paused. Kai was the first to say what they were all thinking.

"Hey uh, where exactly is Wu?"

The teenage sensei in question was on top of a grassy hill not far off and scanning the area. Indeed the ninja arguing had been a distraction. Plus, it was just easier to see things from up here. He squinted as he noticed something tall in the distance.

It was a tower of sorts, but at the top was a hologram that displayed the time. Currently it looked to be around 2 in the afternoon. Another quick scan of the area and Wu was pretty sure he knew where they had ended up. He made his way back down the hill and calmly towards the panicking ninja.

"I found out where we are."

Kai lept a foot in the air, surprised at the seemingly random appearance of Wu. A couple of seconds passed where he was stuck in the bush he had been looking in, and the red ninja was freed.

"Ah, sensei!" He said nervously, "Sorry for uh- getting you lost."

The other ninja gathered around.

"No," Wu said, "I went to look around and didn't tell you. Sorry."

Silence pressed on them for a good minute or so before Zane asked a much needed question.

"So… where are we?"

"Knighton." Wu answered instantly, "A place I visited some time ago when I was a young adult. Luckily, I'm friends with a very powerful wizard who lives here. His name is Merlock, and he can sense beings from another realm."

He sat down in the grass.

"We should only have to wait a short while before he comes and uses magic to send us back home."

Jay chewed at his lip nervously. Sure Wu said he knew this person, but who knew how long ago they had met each other? Oh god, what if this place was overtaken by monsters? He swallowed down a thick lump in his throat before joining his sensei in the grass. One by one the rest of the ninja sat down too.


	3. Chapter 3

The common room of the Fortrex was air conditioned and smelled like a mixture of lavender and potato chips, a telltale sign that Lance and Axl were already there waiting for their leader to show up. Axl was munching on a few snacks, Lance leaning dramatically on Merlock's podium, talking about some party he had been to over the weekend. It was clear that neither Axl nor Merlock were listening to him. Clay entered, Macy at his side, in relative silence due to the needles being stared into his back. Of the five people in the room none noticed the pair until they had joined the other two knights next to Merlock's podium. Lance gave a grin to his partners at once.

"Took you two long enough," He said, "Here I was thinking I'd have to sit alone with Axl and Merlock an eternity. Not that that's a bad thing, of course, but I like having a larger audience."

Clay rolled his eyes playfully and took a seat on one of the many chair surrounding Merlock. He rested his glowing arm on the podium and it changed from blue to orange in an instant. Lance saw this as an opportunity to drape himself onto Clay's lap.

"So what took you two so long anyway?" Lance drawled, "I thought you were just training."

Clay could practically feel waves of annoyance coming off of Macy from behind him. He cringed as she burst out into a sharp explanation.

"We couldn't be here earlier because we had to stop training due to Clay's arm hurting again and him insisting that he's fine."

Merlock 2.0's long mustache twitched once, and he rose an eyebrow at his nephew. Clay almost wished he could disappear to avoid another lecture. Almost.

"Clay," Merlock started, "You know you can't just shrug off this sort of thing. You could hurt yourself. Or others."

Axl nodded, putting down his many snacks so that he could give a disapproving cross of the arms. Clay looked at Lance for help, only to find that even he was giving the knight a worried look. A long huff escaped from Clay's lips.

"I know," He said, "I know all of this, but as a leader I can't shy away from my duties for selfish reasons."

"Selfish reasons?!" Macy shouted, "It isn't selfish Clay, this is about your own well being! You ignoring your own pain is what's selfish!"

A loud blaring of alarms cut Clay off from defending himself, startling Lance so bad that he fell off of his boyfriend's lap. All attention was drawn to Ava, grumbling to herself and typing furiously. The computer systems had alerted them to the strange magical presence again as well as decide that this time some alarms were needed. A couple seconds passed before Ava was finally able to shut them off. She let out another grumble, turning around in her chair to address the gathered knights.

"Good news is that we're getting closer to the source of that weird power surge," She explained as Axl helped Lance off the floor, "Bad news is it looks like there's four or five powerful magical entities in that area as well. So bad for us if they're hostile."

Merlock 2.0 hummed at the news and the gathered knights shared a glance. The door to the left of the lobby that led into the sleeping chambers flew open and Aaron, his hair sticking straight up in places, walked in. His headphones were around his neck, music coming softly from the speakers. And he was shirtless. There was that too.

"What's with all the alarms, Ava?" He grumbled sleepily, wiping at his eyes, "I was taking maybe the best nap of my life. It's not Monstrox again, is it?"

Clay snorted, having to physically drag his eyes away from Aaron.

"Will you all knock it off with that?" He said, "Something minor happens and you all instantly say Monstrox did it.' Axl, you dropped a chip the other day and instantly blamed Monstrox! He isn't even here!"

Axl laughed once and patted his boyfriend's back heartily.

"Clay, it's a joke."

There was a fair share of annoyed grumbling from Clay afterwards, with Aaron slowly scooting over to Merlock's podium to slump himself into a chair. Merlock 2.0 scowled at him.

"Aaron," He huffed, "Please, no leaning on my podium if you aren't going to put on a shirt first."

A giggle passed through all in the room, Clay shaking his head good naturedly. It would take some time to get ready, but the knights were close, and ready to take on whatever fate was throwing at them. But maybe fate could wait a bit longer for Aaron to put on a shirt before anything too crazy happened.


	4. Chapter 4

It took roughly 20 minutes for the rolling fortress to appear, promptly sending Jay shooting off of the ground. His bright brown eyes were wide in a mix of exasperation and fear.

"I'm sorry," He started, "But is that a rOLLING CASTLE?!"

His fingertips sparked violently. Only Wu shooting a knowing look at him calmed him down, but it still only worked a little bit. Cole huffed and stood as well, squinting in the direction of the Fortrex.

"Well, that's what it looks like."

Kai snorted from his spot on the ground and rolled his eyes.

"No shit that's what it looks like, Boulder-brain."

Cole opened his mouth to bark back another insult, leaving Wu to shake his head in vague annoyance. Spending a few months in a realm that they knew nothing about had both made them closer together and less tolerant of each other at the same time. He chose to ignore the growing argument of what it was in the distance to stand and wave at it, drawing it closer to them. Wu gave his students a look.

"Don't say anything and let me handle this. I want to get to my old friend Merlock as soon as possible."

The ninja complied with a collective grumble, returning to sit down. Wu however, stood tall with his hands held together. It almost looked like he had to do it to em. Though who 'em' were was yet to determined.

The Fortrex grew ever closer and Wu smiled when it slowed to a stop in front of the party of five.

"Greetings!" Wu bowed deep, "My name is Wu and I'm looking for a friend of mine known as Merlock. Is there a chance you could lead me and my pupils to him?"

A tense moment passed in which the ninja all shared a look of confusion. As far as they were able to tell, their sensei was speaking fluently in a completely different language. They had learnt the language of the dragons, sure, but this was an entirely different ordeal. What was even more confusing was the sudden appearance of a holographic man on a large screen attached to this rolling castle. His entire body was glowing a soft orange, but it was clear that his eyes were wide with surprise.

"Wu?"

A pause, and now it was Wu's turn to be shocked.

"Merlock? What… what happened?"  
The digital wizard's mouth opened and closed, genuinely a loss for words. Not only had his old friend Wu showed up out of the blue with four teenagers that he claimed were his pupils, but it looked like he had actually aged backwards. This was as big as an anomaly as the time that Axl suddenly stopped eating as much after the fight with the colossus. In the Fortrex he shot a look at Ava, who simply shrugged.

"That's… a long story. Please, come inside the Fortrex. I think we have some things to talk about."

Wu smiled pleasantly, though confusion being evident in his face.

The front latch of the Fortrex was slowly lowered, revealing the hangar within. Weapons of all shapes and sizes were displayed along the walls, though they were dominated by the sheer amount of axes, swords, lances, maces, and crossbows. There was also an overwhelming smell of oil and electronics in the area, and scrap metal lay on the floor here and there. It was clear that this hangar served as a sort of preparation or work area, nothing that anyone lived in, at least. Jay relaxed a little upon entering. The smells and sights were at least somewhat similar to those back home.

A short boy with freckles and orangish brown hair poked his head in through a door off to the side of the room. His face was alight with curiosity, and Kai gave a good natured snort when he saw him.

"Look at the kid," He mentioned, shoving Cole, "Looks like those baby pictures the Walker's have of Jay back home, doesn't he?"

Zane stepped between them, smiling.

"Affirmative. I have some of those pictures saved to my visual memory drives, actually."

At their talking, the boy's attention shifted to Zane, where it stayed. He looked like Zane was the single best thing he had ever seen in his entire life and if he didn't stop looking, the nindroid might just disappear.

The door slid open the whole way, revealing a taller teen with dark brown hair. His right arm, which was glowing a vibrant orange, was resting on the other boy's shoulder.

"You said you were here to see Merlock?" He asked slowly, eyes scanning the ninja with suspicion.

But Wu didn't flinch at all. He met the look evenly and curiously.

"Yes. He is a friend of mine and I have a request to ask of him."

Clay was going to be honest with himself. He really didn't know what to make of these strangers. Three out of the five had a half-nervous half-curious air about them, but the other two were interesting. The white haired teen seemed to look and feel so much older than he really was. Or looked to be, at least. And the other one looked like he was made of metal..? Like some sort of hyper realistic squire-bot. He frowned slightly.

"Well… follow me then."

He tried to pull Robin aside to make room for the strangers, but Robin was practically vibrating in excitement and it took quite a bit to move him.

"Clay," he started happily, "Clay that one's a robot. Like a squire-bot, but he's so incredibly human! Look!"

Clay nodded.

"Yeah I noticed."

When Clay reentered the main area, Merlock 2.0, Ava, and the knights were gathered. From atop his podium Merlock 2.0 seemed to overflow with a mixture of confusion and joy, and Clay stepped around him to join the other knights. Aaron was the first one to break the awkward silence.

"So what's up with the metal guy?"

Clay huffed, "I didn't ask. I think Merlock will explain though. Hopefully."

But Merlock had plans other than explaining what was going on. In fact, the first thing he did upon seeing Wu was ask how he had got back to Knighton in the first place. Wu smiled a sad smile at the question.

"Ninjago is in great trouble, I fear. In order to keep from being crushed to death by a collosus my brother had summoned, we were forced to use travelers tea and just barely managed to escape to the realm of The Oni and the Dragon. We spent most of the time there looking for the ingredients for another traveler's tea but… It looks like we overshot a bit."

Merlock took a moment to take in the information, missing the way Clay shrunk back at the word colossus.

"That is a bit troublesome." Merlock said, running a hand through his digital beard, "And I think I could find a spell to send you back. Only problem is it'll take a while. My memory was scrambled a bit when my physical form was blasted to bits and I was inputted into the computer systems."

For the first time, Merlock 2.0 took notice of the ninja, who had up until this point been standing around awkwardly and attempting to wave to the knights. His eyes lit up both literally and figuratively.

"Oh, and who are these?"

Wu grinned happily, gesturing Cole and the rest of the ninja to step forward.

"My pupils!"

Merlock was absolutely thrilled by this information, and waved the holographic staff he had in his hands. Small trails of orange pixels followed the track.

"Well then, I suppose they should meet the knights of the realm, don't you agree?"

A quick jumble of words later with Ava shouting for Merlock to explain what he was doing, and a bright yellow wave of light passed through all the occupants of the room. It passed gently, not disturbing anyone, but left the ninja with a foul taste in their mouths. Jay was the first to talk.

"Does anyone else feel like they ate a 3 course meal of Cole's food?"

Cole looked up.

"Hey! My cooking has been getting better!"

"If by better you mean more liquidy-" Kai mumbled, before, "Hey wait a second. Are we talking that weird language from before?"

Zane nodded.

"Yes, actually. The holo-wizard probably cast a spell."

"And what told ya that, Tin-Can?"

Wu snapped his fingers, drawing the attention of his students back to the situation at hand. His eyes rolled heavily. It looked like even if they hopped two dimensions in a row, some things never changed.

"Introduce yourselves." Wu said shortly.

The ninja gave each other a look, and Cole stepped forwards first.

"Cole, Master of Earth."

"Kai, Master of Fire."  
"Zane, Master of Ice."

"And Jay, Master of… a lot of things actually. I dabble in electronics, hosted a TV show once, but I'm mostly known as the Master of Electricity."

The knights looked at each other for a moment. Well, that answered their questions as to who the strangers were. Name wise, at least. But what to make of these strangers? They were pretty strange, after all. This time Axl spoke up first.

"I think we should introduce ourselves too. To be proper and all." He then turned to the ninja and smiled. Aaron decided to go first.

"Name's Aaron Fox. It's a pleasure."

"Princess Macy Halbert, but don't call me princess please."

"My name is Lance Richmond. If you weren't from a supposed different realm you'd probably know me. I mean I'm only an amazing actor, knight, and-"

An elbow to his side shut Lance up.

"I'm Axl. Just Axl."

"And my name is Clay Moorington. Any friend of Merlock is a friend of ours."

After Clay said his name, Wu's face lit up in recognition. He stepped over to the knight and looked him up and down with a smile on his face the entire time.

"Clay, huh? Gosh, you've grown so much."

Macy and Aaron shared a look while Clay took a couple of cautious steps back. Ok, so when he said that any friend of Merlock's was a friend of theirs, he wasn't signing up for this sort of nonsense. He swallowed.

"Um. Do I… know you from somewhere?"

Wu paused, straightened back up, and crossed his arms.

"Yes, but you probably don't remember me. Last time I saw you was when you were a baby." He held his hands close together to indicate size, "You were very small."

Clay's heart caught in his throat, and he wasn't aware of his eyes flashing yellow for a moment.

"Right. That's uh. That's great."

Jay stepped into the conversation.

"Hey no offense Wu, but randomly stating that you've known someone since they were a baby is kind of creepy." A pause and a snort, "I mean what's next? You gonna reveal that you've been watching us all since the moment we were born?"

Wu was silent at this remark, causing Jay to break into sputtering. Aaron chuckled to himself.

"Oh I like that guy." He said.

Axl rolled his eyes.

The tension in the room seemed to be finally dissipating. The knights were obviously relaxing, and the ninja were starting to calm down as well. Ava spun around in her swivel chair to look at Merlock 2.0 with crossed arms.

"You're lucky that spell didn't fry your circuits, Magic Man." She huffed, "Next time, try giving me at least a little warning?"

The attention in the room shifted to the 14 year old, and she met all 11 looks evenly. Merlock 2.0 coughed awkwardly.

"Of course, Ava my dear, I'll warn you."

She grunted in acknowledgement and spun back around to face the monitors, returning to her work. Jay opened his mouth to ask what her deal was only to be cut off by a still vibrating Robin. His eyes shone with the same excitement they had seen earlier.

"Are you some sort of squire-bot?" He asked Zane, "You're so realistic! Oh gosh, I want to meet whoever made you- are they with you guys? I could learn so much-"

"Uh, what are you talking about?" Kai snapped at him, "Zane's a member of our team. Not a… a squire-bot or whatever it is."

Lance looked up from what he was doing, which had been picking at dirt under his fingernails. A perfectly groomed eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Wait," he said, "That guy's not human? I just thought it was another one of those cosplayers."

Zane opened and closed his mouth, both uncomfortable and pleased by the attention. Yet he couldn't really find any words at the moment. Cosplayers? Squire-bots? What was this Knighton place even like? Luckily, Cole answered Lance for him.

"No. Zane's a nindroid, and our brother. He sacrificed himself for us once. And then again a few months ago. We're lucky to have him, and to have Jay to fix him up."

Aaron grinned. "Sick."

Jay looked upset by the compliment. His expression fell slightly.

"It's thanks to Nya too, you know." Then quieter, "I miss her."

"She's my sister, you punk." Kai said, stepping over to wrap an arm around the blue ninja, "I miss her too."

Clay frowned to himself. These four missed their home, that was certain. He could hardly think about what it'd be like to be thrown into a completely different realm and have to keep the rest of the knights in order at the same time. He would probably fall apart with the stress of it all. He grit his teeth together and came to a decision.

"We'll help you get back home," He said to them, "We promise."

Lance's lip twitched at the remark.  
"I'm not disagreeing," He said, "But I never signed up for this. Shouldn't we vote?"

Laughter, and then Lance had Aaron's arm over his shoulder and his bright red hair up against the perfect blond of Lance's.

"You crack me up, Lance-Man." Aaron laughed a bit more, "But no, I agree with Clay."

Macy nodded in agreement, followed by Axl. The ninja were kind of at a loss for words.

Cole swallowed once before responding. "Thanks… It uh. It means a lot."

"Yeah," Jay said, "I mean, you guys don't even know us and you're willing to help us out."

A warm smile split Clay's face.

"We're Nexo Knights, it's what we do."


	5. Chapter 5

A few more awkward introductions and everyone decided that a tour of the Fortrex was in order. It was unclear how long the ninja would be staying, so they might as well know the ins and outs of the rolling fortress. Clay was at the head of the group, showing the ninja where each room was and what purpose it served. It was good and all, but slowly the four ninja were starting to get bored. Cole forced a smile when Clay showed them yet another supply room.

"This is all great," He started, "But do you guys do anything for fun around here? I mean, you can't have only storage rooms in this massive thing."

Aaron stepped forward from beside Lance to pat Clay on the back. He met his leader's defeated look with a grin.

"Hey don't worry about it Clay," He said, "Most people just don't find collections of dusty weapons to be as interesting as you do."

Clay opened his mouth to protest, but shut it after a moment when he decided that Aaron was probably right. The green knight in question then took the spot at the head of the group and began to lead them towards the back of the Fortrex where the common room was. There twin couches sat, snacks and drinks littering stray spaces. And in the middle of it all was a pig with a golden collar. Lance dashed to her, laughing to himself.

"Ah, sorry about this," Lance said, leaning down to pat between the pig's ears, "She's a little messy."

Macy snorted.

"You mean you're a little messy? Hamletta's been in your room all day, whereas you and Aaron practically live in here."

Lance frowned at this and stood again, then ran a hand through his perfectly blonde hair in slight embarrassment. Aaron rolled his eyes.

"Well anyway. This is where we hang out and play video games most of the time."

All four ninja shared a look, and then broke into matching smiles. After a couple of months being stuck in the realm of the Oni and the Dragon, they hadn't even had time to think about video games. Now that they were able to actually play them again was a whole other ball park.

"Games?" Jay asked, barely able to contain himself, "Do you mind if we play for a bit? And by we I mean me. It doesn't really matter about anyone else, I've just been dying to finally touch a console again."

The knights were thrown back for a second there, but Aaron replied soon enough with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Sure. If you can beat my high-score I'll show you where Axl hides all the sweets."

On cue the yellow knight's eyes darkened.

"I thought I hid them well enough this time."

Aaron patted his boyfriend's shoulder, a smile plastered onto his face.

"Nope!" He chimed proudly, "Found em under your bed months ago big guy."

Another grumble escaped Axl's lips, but he didn't say anything else when Aaron launched himself over the couch to set something up on the holo-vision. Jay chewed at his lip, anxiously waiting for the device to be turned on.

The holo-vision flickered once, and then lit up brilliantly. On the screen were bright colors arranged in a starting menu, Aaron flashed a grin to Jay and gave him a thumbs up.

"You ever play Whack-Man?" The ginger asked, handing Jay a controller, "If not I can show you the basics."

Jay snorted and fumbled with the controller for a minute before figuring out how to hold it in a comfortable way. He rolled his eyes.

"Well no I haven't played it. I'm from an entire different realm," Jay snarked, watching Aaron select 2-player mode, "But trust me, I pick things up easily."

At the last remark, he turned to the ninja and winked. Macy leaned over the edge of the couch, Clay moved to lean against the wall with Axl following him, and the ninja sat on the floor near Lance and Hamletta. A couple seconds passed where the starting tune played, and the game had started. Aaron started moving his character at once.

"The point of the game is to hit the button on the opposite player's side of the map with your hammer," Aaron explained, "Pretty simple. There's usually items that you can use to trap the other player but I turned them off. It gets pretty heated in here when they're on."

Jay nodded. His character was still not moving, truth was he was a bit too lazy to bother with learning any controls now. He had another idea.

Sparks shot from his fingertips, and then he had full control over the electrical current that the game console had. So he could just teleport his character directly to Aaron's button if he wanted to. A grin split Jay's face as he did exactly that. One tap of the 'hit' button and Jay had won. Aaron's jaw dropped.

"Wh- You-"

Jay cackled loudly and fell against the back of the couch. He clapped his hands in pure joy at the utter loss Aaron was at. Aaron scowled and crossed his arms.

"Ok you got lucky there," He reasoned, "One more go."

Jay's smile was full of nothing but pure malice. Behind him, Cole made motions for Aaron to back off. But pride was at stake here, and Aaron would not give up on his pride. The game's jingle played again.

"Here's comes the sting!"

And Aaron lost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, which now hung open in disbelief.

"So," Jay drawled, leaning forward so that he could look Aaron in the eye, "What was that about a sweets stash?"

Somehow Aaron wasn't willing to throw in the towel. He went back to the menu, turned the items option on, and back to 2-player. His jaw was grit in determination.

"I will not lose." He said, "Let's go again."

The tension in the room skyrocketed, and Clay shuffled his feet awkwardly. Even Zane could feel how awkward it would get if they stayed. The nindroid stood and crossed the room to Clay.

"Uh, let's just move on. And leave them behind."

Clay nodded and led the group out of the common room.


	6. Chapter 6

The next place that Clay led them to was the hangar, where robin was busy at work welding something together. His head mask was lowered, and the sheer amount of noise prevented him from noticed anyone or thing until he had a hand on his shoulder. Robin was startled for a moment before he noticed that there was a familiar tingle to its touch. Clay. The mask was flipped up and Robin used his arm to wipe sweat off of his forehead. He smiled at his mentor.  
"Heya, Clay!" He said, putting down his soldering iron, "Are you showing the visitors around?"  
Clay nodded and stepped aside so that the freshman knight could see the ninja. At once, Robin's eyes locked on Zane, and he gave an excited wave. Zane returned it politely, leaving Robin with an even wider smile than he had had. Before he had the chance to launch into more questions like the ones that had been asked earlier though, a hand ruffled his hair. He squawked loudly.  
"This is Robin," Clay said, lifting his hand with a small laugh, "He's not a full knight yet, but his skills with electronics are so useful that Merlock wanted him to travel with us."  
Robin said hello again while trying desperately to fix his hair. Cole laughed after watching for a moment.  
"Yeah," he said leaning over to Kai, "He does look a lot like Jay when he was a kid."  
Kai stuck an elbow into Cole's side, shutting-up the earth ninja.  
Robin finished fixing his hair with a little help from Macy, and finally turned to greet the ninja properly.  
"Sorry about that-" he shot a glare at Clay, "And uh, yeah I'm Robin. Robin Underwood."  
Zane stepped forward, shoving his brothers aside, and stuck out his hand to Robin. He wasn't the best at picking up on emotions, but Robin's reaction to him earlier and the newfound knowledge that Robin was a mechanic told Zane that the young teen would probably enjoy getting to know how he worked. And he was right. Robin practically glowed with excitement and awe as he shook Zane's hand. After they were done shaking, Robin gently turned the nindroid's hand in his own, staring at all the joints and seams. Zane wiggled his finger with a grin and watched as Robin gave a small gasp in return. It was then that he looked up, and let go of Zane.  
"S-sorry," Robin said, laughing nervously, "It's just- you're really cool. Literally and figuratively."  
Cole and Kai snickered through their teeth and Zane smiled. He stuck back out his palm, letting a hiss of coolant out. Cool steam surrounded his hand in an instant, forming ice crystals in the air. A collective "Ooh" passed through the group.  
"That's…" Robin's eyes widened, "That's so cool! Is that a misting coolant or some sort of ice regulated system-"  
He bounced on his heels excitedly.  
"You're amazing!"  
Zane blushed a bright blue, pleased at the compliment, and drew back his hand. He was at least a whole foot taller than Robin, and was easily able to see the young knight's work from over his head. On the worktable behind him was what he had been working on when the group entered the hangar. It was a sort of gauntlet, with wires attaching it to a complicated outlet system on the wall. Zane scanned it with his eyes, wishing that he still had PIXAL in his head to help him determine what was what. But PIXAL was back in Ninjago, and Zane was here, so he had to use older methods of figuring things out. This method was commonly known as asking a question.  
"Thank you," He started, "And I'm curious to know what you're working on at the moment?"  
Robin's eyes lit up, and he turned back around over his project. The gathered knights and ninja followed him to look at Robin's creation.  
"This," He said, pushing a button on the side of the gauntlet, "Is something I've been working on for a couple of days now to help Clay control his magic!"  
The gauntlet lit up to a bright blue color, the same color that Clay's arm was at the moment. Clay inched closer to watch as Robin demonstrated.  
"Ya see, I thought that holding the power back hurts Clay, why not just channel it outwards instead?"  
He motioned for Clay to put his glowing arm inside the gauntlet and Clay complied nervously. Anxiety poured off of the knight in waves.  
"It may only be a prototype," Robin continued, hooking up the wires from the gauntlet onto a lightbulb, "But the basic idea is that Clay releases his magic into the system, where it can be turned into power for the Fortrex! Kinda like how Merlock 2.0 works now. Clay, if you would."  
A moment passed where the ninja, knights, and Robin watched the small bulb in anticipation before they realized that Clay wasn't doing anything. Zane decided to scan both Clay and the mechanism and was nearly physically thrown back by the bright lights that covered his vision. Pure, raw magical power filled the knight and concentrated near his arm. It was amazing to him that Clay wasn't being hurt by the energy.  
And then Zane remembered what Robin had said only moments ago. Holding this power back actually did cause Clay physical pain. The nindroid swallowed awkwardly and took a half-step back from Clay.  
"Robin," Clay started slowly, "I can't control how much power comes out and I-" He paused, uncertain, "I don't want to hurt anyone."  
Macy face-palmed and grumbled something to Axl, who in turn moved closer to Clay so that he could wrap an arm around him. Clay stiffened at the touch, slowly looking up into Axl's eyes. An entire conversation seemed to pass between the two just between their eyes, and the ninja were ever so slightly confused by it. Eventually though Axl lifted his arm and Clay sighed, then closed his eyes.  
A faint orange light began to spill from the cracks between the gauntlet's seams, and the blue of the mechanism changed to match. Robin's breath caught in his chest. And then, the light bulb flickered to life. A cheer of success passed between the group. Clay's eyes stayed shut as he concentrated though, but there was movement behind his eyelids.  
To him, there was silence, and then a voice. A sweet, soft, comforting voice that he heard in his dreams and his nightmares. It sang his name to him once, and his eyes flashed open.  
Yellow, bright and burning yellow, replaced the usual deep brown of his eyes, and his lips pulled back into a half-grimace half-snarl. The light bulb promptly exploded, the gauntlet with it.  
Instinctively, the ninja moved to cover their faces with their arms, the knights lowering their helmets. When the ninja lowered their arms, Lance had Clay's head in his hands. Clay, sweat dripping down his forehead, was breathing heavily, and his arm slowly faded back to blue.  
Kai leaned over to Cole and Zane, eyes wide in shock.  
"So uh," He said softly, "Any of you see that coming?"  
Zane's optics flickered once as he scanned the area. Clay's magic levels had spiked with the burst, but now they were returning to normal.  
"I did," The nindroid admitted, "But an explosion of that caliber was… not what I thought would happen."  
Cole shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. It was grimy from sweat and lack of cleaning.  
"Should warn us next time, Tin-Can."  
There was a collective roll of the eyes between the three.  
Meanwhile, only four feet away Clay was recovering from the flash of his mother. His breathing was still labored, and Lance was still holding his head, but now Axl was rubbing his back gently, and Macy was working to take the shattered gauntlet off of his arm. Robin was busy pulling himself off of the floor, rubbing the back of his head where a bump was starting to form.  
Lance stared deep into the deep browns of Clay's eyes, "Hey. You're okay. Whatever happened, it didn't happen here. Everyone's okay. You're okay."  
Clay swallowed down a thick lump in his throat and slowly forced himself to stand up straight. For half a second he had seen everyone in the room as his enemy. It had taken all his power to keep himself from pulling his sword off of his back and attacking everyone. He let out a breath that he hadn't even realized he was holding.  
"Th-thanks," He croaked, "Sorry about that."  
That last bit was louder, and aimed towards both the ninja and Robin. Robin shook his head and held up his hands.  
"No need to be sorry. At least now I know to build it stronger next time."  
Clay nodded, albeit shakily, and brushed himself off. He didn't care where they went next, he just wanted out of the hangar.  
"Well should we um-" he rubbed his collarbone anxiously, "We should continue with the tour."  
Kai and Cole shared a glance, but Zane walked over to Robin and began to help clean up glass.  
"Actually," Zane said, "I think I'll stay here and help Robin clean up. And maybe help with some inventions."  
Robin's jaw dropped in awe, and then it snapped shut a half second later. He turned to Clay happily and waved him out of the hangar.  
"Thanks for helping!" He chimed, "I'll see you later, Clay!"  
Macy waved, and Cole joined her after a moment. Half waving to Zane and half to Robin.


	7. Chapter 7

Axl had taken the lead so that Clay could relax at the back of the group, and he knew exactly where he wanted to go.

The kitchen always had a sweet smell of something cooking, and Axl loved it. On one of the walls, dozens of different pots and pans hung on hooks. In front of the pans was a bar table with a couple of plates covered in cookies sat. A table, fruits layed decoratively all over it, was where Axl was leading the group though, and he pulled out a couple of chairs for Cole and Kai to sit on. This room was his Sistine Chapel, he, Michelangelo. He headed over to one of the many cabinets and rummaged around for snacks to feed his guests.

Cole looked around at the kitchen from his seat, not noticing Macy taking the seat next to him. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten a proper, clean meal. The land of the Oni and the Dragon had food, sure, but it had no order to the food. They had eaten when they found anything edible, whether that be a rat or a literal cactus. How Cole longed for an actual three course meal. Hell, he would even throw away his diet for just one slice of cake. He watched Axl move with curiosity, grabbing an apple off of the tabletop and biting into it blindly.

A soft hum escaped Axl's lips as he collected bags of chips, cookies, and even those stupid energy bars that had Lance's face plastered onto them.

"So," He said as he turned to join the group at the table, "Do you guys have this sort of stuff where you come from?"

Kai grabbed a bag of chips from the table, opened it, sniffed at it curiously, then jammed a few into his mouth before replying.

"I mean- sort of? We have the same sort of stuff, but we don't have," He lifted up a Lance-Bar, "Whatever this is."

On cue Lance broke into a smirk and recited a phrase almost robotically.

"Lance-Bars. Full of energy, and my good looks."

Macy leaned across the table so that she was closer to Kai. "Actually, they're just full of peanuts and protein fiber. Kinda gross."

Lance broke into sputtering, and Kai almost choked on his chips from laughter. Food was just what they had all needed, and the five were relaxing slowly.

One of the many ovens in the wall gave a gentle 'ding', and a door off to the side of one of the cabinet shelves slid open. Chef Eclair stood in its doorway, his clamp hands adjusting his hat. A couple seconds passed where he just stood in the door awkwardly and faced all the stares he was getting before he started towards the oven, grumbling to himself about how impolite some people were. Axl leaned back in his chair and turned to follow the squirebot with his eyes.

"Hey, Chef," He called after a second, "What're you making?"

A synthetic huff escaped Chef's mouth. "A cake. You would know zis if you hadn't been off doing whatever you were doing earlier. You are ze singing chef, not ze questioning chef."

Cole froze. A cake. An actual cake. Warm and fresh from the oven after months of being stuck in a realm with not even a cupcake, and even more months where he had been on a diet. The Fortrex shook as a tremble passed through the ground. Kai's head snapped up from his third bag of chips.

"Uh, you okay over there Rocky?" He asked.

But Cole didn't even hear him. He was still too focused on the concept of a cake. His mouth began to water.

"What uh," Cole started shakily, "What kind of cake?"

Chef Eclair reached into the oven and pulled out… chocolate. Chocolate cake. Cole's eyes widened, a grin splitting his face.

"It's chocolate," The chef explained, setting the hot pan onto a heat mat, "And it is very hot. So you will have to wait if you want-"

Cole wasn't paying attention. He already had his hands in the cake and the cake in his mouth. Both body parts were now burning, but jesus it was worth it. Hot, warm, chocolatey goodness filled Cole's mouth, and he was only minutely aware of Chef Eclair absolutely losing his mind beside him. Kai vocally voiced his thoughts.

"Hey, Cole? What the actual fuck are you doing over there?"

Cole swallowed and turned to face his brother with a look of death in his eyes.

"Kai Smith, are you aware how long I have waited for this moment?" the earth ninja hissed through gritted teeth, "I told myself I wouldn't eat cake until we found Wu, and we finally found him. But before I'm able to indulge myself in that sweet sweet confection, we get smashed off into Hell. My mouth is burning but sweet fucking jesus I have waited so long for this."

And with that he shoveled another fistful of cake into his mouth, keeping eye contact with Kai the entire time. It was extremely uncomfortable for everyone involved. Axl coughed to break the silence.

"Well uh, I guess I'll stay here with these two to bake another cake and clean up. You guys go on ahead and finish up the Fortrex tour."

Clay nodded, forcing himself to look away from the rabid ferocity that Cole was eating the cake with.

"Yeah you do that." He stood slowly, Lance, Kai, and Macy following his example, "Let's continue."


	8. Chapter 8

There was really only one place left in the Fortrex that was worth showing off, and that was the holochamber. The holochamber walls were a colorless white, and Macy kinda hated it. The bright white… it was a bit too much like the halls of the castle. She watched Lance move to lean up against one of the walls, and looked around the room, waiting for Ava's face to pop up. A couple seconds later and she was rewarded with the brunettes head enlarged on the western wall. She giggled to herself as Kai jumped. The distant sound of a keyboard echoes through the room from Ava's microphone.

"So are you guys just showing off the holodeck or..?" She questioned, not looking up from another screen off to the side. Clay crossed his arms and looked at Kai, an eyebrow raised.

"Well that depends," he said, "Kai, you wanna see what this place can do?"

Kai blinked at Clay and rubbed the back of his neck absently.

"Uh, I mean, sure. I've got nothing else to do so-"

Instantly their surroundings changed to a woodland path, and Kai practically jumped out of his own skin. Tech definitely was not his thing, and this was either tech or magic. Probably both. Still, the entire thing was way out of his comfort zone.

After the landscape stopped shifting, and the knights were thoroughly amused, Kai calmed down. He laughed off any previous terror shakily, hoping his impression on the knights hadn't faltered. Lucky for him, the knights were now too busy with stretching themselves out to notice the single ninja. Kai frowned.

"So this is the holochamber," Lance started, "It changes to suit our training needs and wants, yadda yadda yadda."

He pulled his lance off from behind his back, extended it, then leaned against the handle.

"Listen, I know you really don't care about all this, and neither do I. So I'm going to do the righteous thing and sit out."

Clay and Macy gave Kai a resigned shrug as Lance when to sit down on the ground, weapon sitting beside him. Lance usually wasn't one for training, and since this wasn't a required or scheduled training session, he could do whatever he wanted. Though Clay made a mental note to push the white knight a bit harder during the next team activity.

Clay pulled his sword out from behind him only to find Macy's hand on his arm, stopping him. Her bright brown eyes were hardened. She wanted to take on Kai. Whether she wanted to test her abilities or just vent out her frustrations with her boyfriends against this poor unsuspecting soul, she couldn't decide. But one thing was certain. She was going to do her best to try and annihilate this overrated twunk of a ninja.

Kai meanwhile, was struggling to understand what was going on. Were they going to fight now? Is that what they were going to do? A mace being flung at his face answered the question. Yes. The answer was yes.

Frantically, Kai grasped behind his back to grab at the handles of his twin blades. Both had been made by his father, and had his name engraved into them on both sides. He knew these weapons better than he knew his own mother.

The two broke out into full blown fighting now. Macy was more heavy hitting, and Kai was always just out of reach. He lept back every time her mace got too close, and he occasionally would make a few fierce jabs at her as well. Those tended to land more often than not, and made a horrible screeching noise against the metal of Macy's armor. Yet Kai was letting his ego get to his head again, and as the battle continued, he started making snarky remarks here and there.

"Missed me," he crowed, dodging a heavy blow that had been aimed at his head, "Maybe you should be called 'Missy' instead of 'Macy', princess."

Macy grit her teeth.

"Where'd you get that from?" She hissed, "The back of a cereal box?"

Kai laughed, and jumped back a couple of times, directly into the trunk of a holographic tree that still felt rather real. A couple seconds later and there was a mace pressed against his chest, and a grinning princess gloating in his face.

"What was that about 'Missy'?" she taunted, "Maybe you should be called 'Loser', I mean, it's true."

Kai looked from the mace, to Macy, and then to Clay and Lance who were watching nearby. Then, a shit-eating grin broke his face like an egg. The smell of burning hair began to waft in the false forest.

It took Macy a moment to notice what was happening, but when she did she screamed. Lance and Clay rushed over and started frantically patting out the flames that had begun to burn from the tip of Macy's ponytail, Kai cackling like a madman the entire time.

"Holy shit!" The red ninja managed to gasp, "Your face! Your face!"

Singed red locks now made up the half of Macy's hair that was left. She was fine other than the fact that she probably needed a haircut. Kai was in the middle of another loud laugh when he felt eyes on him. Burning, revenge determined eyes. He choked when he saw Macy's face.

Oh she was going to avenge her hair all right, and she'd start with dunking this kid's head straight into a toilet when she was done with him. Lance stepped back from the two and shot a look at his wrist.

There was nothing there. No watch or fancy bracelet, but sometimes people need to lie to survive. Now was one of those times.

"Hoo boy would you look at the time," he said, continuing to step away from the pair, "I mean I'd love to stay and watch but I think I have a party to get to."  
Clay gave Lance a look.

"Party? You said that you were free for the week just last night-"  
"We should get going," Lance pressed, starting to drag Clay away by the arm, "Really now. We'd be late."

Clay was unable to give any protest before he was forcefully dragged away from the holochamber. Just in time too, Macy and Kai had started fighting again.


	9. Chapter 9

Well now Clay and Lance were alone. The ninja were off enjoying themselves in different parts of the Fortrex, as were a majority of the knights. So what to do? Lance suggested just taking a nap, only to be shut down instantly by Clay. No slacking on a day where they had guests, it was impolite. So the pair just made their way back to the common room where Merlock 2.0 and Wu were catching up over a cup of tea and Ava was trying desperately to ignore them in a corner. Well, some company was better than none.

Clay took a seat across from Wu quietly so not to interrupt the conversation, Lance taking the seat to his right. Wu was going on about someone named Morro, and Merlock was listening, enraptured by the story, but Clay could not catch onto what was being discussed in the slightest. The best he could do was nod when Merlock did in the hopes that it looked like he understood.

Lance wasn't even trying. Instead, he was eating a Lance-Bar he had nabbed from when they were at the kitchen earlier. How he could stand the taste of those rancid protein bars was an enigma.

A couple more minutes passed, Wu's talking filling the otherwise silence of the room joined by Ava's typing, before the story was finally over. Clay took that moment as one to speak up.

"We gave the ninja a tour, Merlock."

The holo-wizard in question jumped, then whipped around on his podium to give his nephew a stern glare.

"Clay, my boy, you can't keep on sneaking up on me like that! A little warning would be nice!"

Clay nodded, elbowing Lance to get his attention. It worked slightly, and the knight gave a small huff before shoving the unfinished bits of his snack into a pocket. Wu gave the two a look from behind Merlock 2.0's bright orange hologram.

"Sorry Merlock," Clay continued, "Just thought you'd like to know. Especially since everyone is kind of scattered everywhere throughout the place."

Merlock hummed in confirmation, twirling a finger through his digital beard.

"Scattered is a good way of putting it," He mused, "Well, as long as they're relaxing."

Wu smiled from the other side of the podium.  
"As long as they're relaxing indeed! I'm glad my pupils are fitting in with you knights."

Lance gave Clay a skeptical look from the corner of his eyes. They had both been wondering how a teenager could refer to people the same age as him as his "pupils". Yet both Lance and Clay thought that the answer would be overly complicated and possibly involve some sort of retcon timeline bullshit, so they kept their mouths shut. Instead they let Merlock continue the conversation.

"Pupils indeed!" The wizard chimed, "I know you've met my nephew already, so where's yours? Last I heard from you Garmadon's wife was pregnant."  
Instantly Wu looked like he would rather be anywhere else. So he did as any self respecting teenager turned sensei would do and changed the topic instantly with no explanation.

"So did Clay end up inheriting magic from you and his mom?"

Now it was _Clay's_ turn to look extremely uncomfortable. His arm changed from blue to orange, then settled on a bright white. Wu watched this happen with mild interest. Merlock 2.0 coughed in an attempt to ease the waves of anxiety now pouring off of his nephew.

"Ah, he did, actually. But his mother was corrupted by the allure of the Forbidden Powers and I… I had to encase her in stone to save her. I didn't tell Clay about his magic at first because I was afraid that he would inherit the taint from his mother at a young age but ah, Montrox brought it up from the depths of Clay's blood anyway."

A sharp pain shot through Clay's arm and he bit down on his tongue to keep from crying out. He knew these weren't new pains, but memories of the unbearable pain he had been in when he broke free from his stony prison of a body. This pain always returned when anyone talked about his magic or his mother. He hated it. But for now all he could do is rub at his wrist and force himself to focus on other things.

"I've been trying my best to train him," Merlock continued sadly, "But I'm more focused on keeping _that_ from spreading."

He didn't even need to point at Clay's arm, Wu knew what his friend was talking about. And then Wu was struck with an absolutely brilliant idea. The ninja may not have magic, but they had their elemental powers, which were _very_ similar to the magic of Knighton. He smiled at Merlock 2.0.

"Maybe my students can help with that."

((This is a line break))

"So what are the rules again?"

The four ninja and five knights were gathered in the holochamber. Cole, who's hammer was slung over his shoulder, had asked the question. Not because he didn't understand, but because he was pretty sure that Kai was too busy making faces at Macy to pay attention. Clay pressed a hand- the one not currently in the shape of a giant sword- to his temples. If Cole asked for a fifth time after this, he might actually lose his cool.

"Each team has a target on their side," Clay recited, gesturing to the wooden targets, "It's your team's job to guard your target and to be the first to hit the opponent's target. Simple stuff. We played this back at the Knights Academy."

Cole nodded, elbowed Kai, and moved his hammer into both hands.

"I still can't believe you were cheating at Whack-Man," Aaron said, flipping his visor over his eyes, "Lightning powers are cheating."

Jay shrugged and swung his nunchucks comfortably.

"Not cheating until you get caught-"

"Can we go now?" Macy snapped, "Seriously, I want revenge for my hair."

Clay gave a small grunt of agreement.

"Right. When the bell rings we start."

All four ninja tensed, lining up side by side in a wall that hid the target from view. Clay gave the knights a hand signal, and they lined up in a triangle formation. Clay, Lance, and Macy at the front would split the ninja's formation while Aaron and Axl stayed behind and defended the target. It was one of the oldest tactics in the book, but dear god they loved using it.

The bell rang.

At once the ninja started forwards, but were cut away from the opposite target by the three knights at the head of the form. Jay managed to slip past only to be stopped short when an axe landed right where his head would have been if he hadn't jumped out of the way. Aaron watched the battle closely for a few seconds, wating until all four ninja were pinned before making a beeline for the ninja's target on his hovershield, successfully shooting it dead in the center. The entire match probably lasted about 30 seconds.

Lance lifted up his weapon from where it pinned Kai's gi to the ground, flipped up his visor, and wiped sweat off of his forehead.

"Only 30 seconds?" He whined, "It felt like an eternity!"

Cole removed the handle of his hammer from Macy's neck and slung it back over his shoulder. His eyebrows pulled together in mild confusion.

"Yeah well that's kind of how they tend to be." A pause, "Battles, I mean."

"I think a rematch is in order," Jay wheezed, trapped under Axl's butt, "Could be just me though."

So the timer was reset, and the knights and ninja got back into position only for this match to yield the same result. In fact, the next three all ended in the ninja's failure. Frustrated, Kai shouted for a time out, gathering his brothers close into a huddle.

"Ok," He huffed, "So obviously we're sucking a little bit, but also, we aren't using our fucking powers. Which is, by the way, the reason Wu sent us to train with these guys in the first place."

Jay gave a soft grumble telling Kai to watch his profanities before Zane took up the argument.

"Specifically he said to set a good example for Clay in the hopes that he will learn from us."

"Right," Kai said, "Just set an example for ol' fuckhands mcsword over there and try not to suck so bad anymore."

There was a grumble that passed between the other three ninja at being bossed around by Kai, but none objected. They were in fact, getting their collective asses kicked over and over again because they were being too caught up in physical combat to use their powers. But now things were going to change.

The bell rang once more and the first thing Kai did was shoot a fireball into the knight's formation. Immediately they broke apart, Lance even giving an annoyed yelp at the flames when they came too close to him for comfort. Zane saw this as a splendid opportunity to freeze everyone in place, and Jay simply darted forward and tapped the target with his hand.

The ninja were now absolutely smug. 10 seconds it had taken them to take down the knights. 10.

The grin Kai had on his face while he unfroze Clay was one full of pleasure and smugness. Clay met it with a poker face, but his eyes flashed yellow briefly.

"So…" Aaron said to nobody in particular, "That just happened."

Axl snorted. "No shit, Aaron."

Lance stepped forward, swinging his lance in his hands like an was indifferent to the situation, but he had to admit, he liked things a lot better when he was winning.

"I'm going to copy what the blue one said and say that I think a rematch is in order."

"The score is four to one," Clay said, "First team to 10 wins. Deal?"  
Cole stuck out his hand and shook Clay's non-sword hand.

"Deal."

The timer was reset, and the ninja burst forward again, powers at the ready. The matches swayed differently each round, but it always ended up with the ninja winning. Each time they won Clay's eyes flashed yellow, and now the score was practically set.

9-4. Ninja in the lead by far.

The bell rang for perhaps the final time, and Kai headed straight for Clay. Fire danced in his palms and he chucked fireballs with ease at the knight. Clay shielded himself with his sword-arm, grunting as he was pushed back.

Kai laughed tauntingly, shooting another three fireballs before moving in with his swords.

"What's wrong Clay?" He teased, "Got some sort of issue over there with the swinging part? Here, I'll show you how to do it."  
Both blades were brought down hard and clashed with Clay's singular blade. He tried not to let Kai get to him, but now his eyes were flashing rapid yellow. He knew he was about to snap. He could feel it.

Clay shoved the ninja back a few feet and started advancing. Kai smirked at him, put his blades back behind himself, and lit twin fires in his palms. That did it. Before Clay could stop himself he was on top of Kai, sword arm replaced with his normal arm, and both hands wrapped around the ninja's neck. At once all battling stopped.

Macy could tell from the bright yellow gaze Clay had, and the slow tightening of his fists that this… _thing_ wasn't Clay. The Grey Knight was back again.

"Clay!" She cried, hoping he would snap out of it, "Clay stop you're hurting him!"

When he didn't respond, and just kept watching Kai choke beneath him, the knights dropped their weapons and ran over to their boyfriend. He wasn't going to like it, but he needed to get off and away from Kai as soon as possible.

The rest of the ninja were horrified. Kai was struggling to breath under this person they thought they could trust. Hell, he was being _strangled_ over there. Zane was the first to his feet and then he was by the knights at Clay's side, grabbing him and attempting to pull him off. After Zane was Cole, and then Jay. Soon there was an entire entourage of 7 people tugging on Clay, and after a few moments, the Grey Knight was finally pulled away from the Red Ninja.

Kai grabbed at his throat desperately and choked down air, scooting himself as far away from the knights as he could, stopping only when his back hit a wall. And then the other ninja were by his side, checking him for other injuries.

Meanwhile Clay was half-yelling half-growling at his team.  
"We were going to lose!" He spat, "To these strangers! We're the Knights of the Realm for God's sake!"

"This isn't you!" Macy shouted back, "You need to calm down, take a breather or something!"

Aaron stepped forward, shielding Macy with one arm.

"She's right," He said, "You just need to calm down."

Clay scowled at Aaron and Macy, then whipped around to face the ninja.

"If you guys won't support me, then I'll just have to win the game _for_ us."

His arm lengthened into a sword again and he slowly started to advance towards Kai. It was as if the other ninja didn't exist to him. Or if they did, he only saw them as more obstacles. About halfway through his march Merlock 2.0 came over the intercom. His voice was rang with power and control, and he only uttered one word.

" _Sleep._ "

A heartbeat passed, and then Clay toppled over onto the ground, his arm returning to normal. He was instantly in a deep sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

Clay opened his eyes and was greeted by a pure white field. No sounds penetrated this space, it was only him and his dreams, his happy place. Or so he thought.  
Behind him was a woman, her skin made of stone and her eyes burning bright yellow. Purple markings criss-crossed her face and accentuated her warm gaze. Clay sighed in frustration and turned to meet her. When he did, his own eyes flashed yellow briefly. A smile split the woman's face.  
"What's wrong my son?" She crowed to him, "Are you not feeling good?"  
Clay grit his teeth and looked away from her. His fists clenched as if he was about to throw a punch, but he couldn't bring himself to attack her. He looked at her again.  
"Get out of my head, witch."  
A high-pitched laugh greeted his words. It felt like being stabbed in the heart.  
"Oh, getting mouthy now are we?" A hand reached out and cupped Clay's chin, forcing it closer to the stone woman's own face. Sharp fangs glittered in the white space as she smiled a knowing smile. Clay hated it.  
He hated the way his mother could step into his mind any time she wanted, even control him sometimes. But he could never bring himself to put up barriers. He longed to know why she abandoned him in search for forbidden powers. Why she did all of this in the first place. He jerked his face away from hers and was met with another laugh.  
"Sweet son of mine," Rowena said, "You can't keep greeting me like this. If you keep it up, you'll be punished."  
She crossed her arms and Clay scowled at her. His eyes flashed yellow another couple of times.  
"I'll be punished?" He asked, incredulous, "Isn't what you and Monstrox have done to me punishment enough? I attack my friends, I can hardly control myself, and not to mention I have you constantly creeping around in my head!"  
Rowena broke into more loud, penetrating laughter. It was harsh and biting, and Clay instantly deflated upon hearing it. His heart hurt. His head hurt. He just wanted to wake up. But he was stuck here, asleep, with his mother in his head. Her laughter slowly dissolved.  
"If me being in your head bothers you that much, I wouldn't worry. We'll be meeting again in the waking realm soon."  
The world around them shifted, sending Clay to his knees. His hands hit the ground and invisible stones cut into his palms. A stain of red blemished the pure white landscape, and then Clay awoke.  
The first thing he noticed was that there was a hand in his hair. It was gentle and kind, and the long fingers of whoever it belonged to worked slowly and carefully. It was comforting, and Clay leaned into the touch. As he expected would happen, he was met with an overly melodramatic sigh. Lance. Clay rolled over to look at his boyfriend's face, but in a way that Lance could continue to play with his hair. Brown eyes gazed into bright blue ones and Lance frowned to himself.  
"She was in my dreams again," Clay broke the silence, "She says that we'll meet soon."  
Lance was quiet for another couple of moments, busy making a small braid.  
"I don't get why you don't just block her out." He finally said, "You can do that, can't you?"  
Clay was silent. He didn't want to admit that he wanted her to visit him so that he could learn more about her. He didn't want to admit that he actually wanted so badly to be able to meet her in person. It would make him sound stupid. To fear and detest his mother but to want to meet her again. He swallowed and rolled back away from Lance, this time not caring if his hand was dislodged from his hair. Lance made a small noise, before clambering onto the bed to rest his head on Clay's wide shoulders. From there Lance resumed playing with Clay's hair.  
"If you're wondering, the others are fine. I stayed behind to make sure you were ok while Macy and the others checked up on Kai." He twirled a finger around a particularly thick lock of hair, "What made you lose yourself like that though? You haven't gotten that bad in a while."  
Clay thought back to when they had all been training together. 5 knights versus 4 ninja. The entire thing felt like a blur now. The ninja had been starting to get ahold of themselves in terms of battle, and they had started using their powers. The way they had moved so easily, it was like watching a fish swim, or a bird fly. Meanwhile Clay struggled with his powers. While they had adapted so easily to their circumstances, Clay was left struggling to grasp something he'd had for months now. He'd wanted so badly to be like them, easy and carefree in their nature, so he pushed himself. He pushed through the pain in his arm begging him to stop and eventually forced himself over the edge.  
Kai had been the one to finally snap him. Fire had danced on the ninja's hands so calmly. It was like the very existence of that small flame was mocking him. At that moment Clay had wanted nothing more than to make Kai hurt. To force the ninja to lose. Clay squeezed his eyes shut at the memory, feeling sick.  
"I… don't really know." Clay half-whispered, "I wanted to be able to control my magic like the ninja are able to control their elements and next thing I know my hands are around Kai's throat and you guys are trying to drag me off. But I was still so _angry_."  
Lance's hands stopped for a second, then he slowly lifted off of Clay's back so that he could look at his boyfriend in the eyes. Clay's expression was full of guilt and sadness and Lance's heart broke a little from looking at it. He gently touched the side of Clay's face and drew the attention of the blue knight.  
"Clay," He said, "Nobody blames you for what happened. Even the ninja knew something was up. It wasn't your fault."  
Clay sighed, but didn't argue against Lance as he usually did. Somehow, the silence was even more troubling. Lance frowned, planted a gentle kiss on Clay's forehead, then moved up and out of the bed.  
"Well," Lance said, "You can stay here if you want and come out whenever you're ready."  
Clay nodded and sat up, turning to look at Lance.  
"I'm ready to come out now. I just need to…"  
"Get into more suitable clothing?" Lance snorted playfully, "No offense but you look like you crawled out of a sewer. Some sort of sewer rat."  
Laughter burst from Clay's chest, lifting a weight off of Lance's. It looked like Clay was calming down a bit.  
"I may be sewer rat," Clay returned, "But I'm you guys's sewer rat. And you all love me for it."  
Lance shook his head and turned towards the door to leave, partly to give Clay some privacy and partly to hide the massive grin on his face.  
"Don't push it." He said, leaving the small room.


	11. Chapter 11

Kai flinched at the cold touch of an icepack against his neck. Bruises were already starting to form, and Zane had insisted that Kai take at least some form of action to numb the pain, even it if meant holding an icepack against his neck and having to deal with dribbles of cold condensation trailing down his back.

Right now the four ninja and three knights were gathered in the common room, strewn about on different couches. Macy was sitting against the back of one couch on the floor, Aaron leaning over the back of said couch was trimming the burnt ends of her hair off. On the couch closest to the door that led into the lobby sat Axl and Cole, who were both silent. And Jay was just pacing in anticipation for god knows what. The door next to Cole and Axl's couch slid open and in entered Lance, Clay trailing behind him. Their hands were intertwined tightly, Lance gently leading Clay to sit on either side of Macy.

An awkward silence filled the space, only the occasional snip from Aaron's scissors ringing through the room. Clay twiddled his thumbs, grimaced to himself, then looked up at Kai. Zane was still holding the icepack in place.

"So…" Clay offered, "I want to apologize for what happened in the holochamber."

Kai took the icepack from Zane and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

"No need," He returned, "I kind of deserved it. And these guys already explained what your deal was."

Cole nodded from his own seat.

"Yeah. It wasn't your fault."

Clay tried to nod, but was stopped by a hand grabbing his chin. Suddenly Clay was looking into the fierce gaze of Macy. He swallowed nervously.

"Clay," She huffed, "Why didn't you just let us know when you started hurting so that we could prevent stuff like this? This is the third time that something like this has happened. Once with Jestro, once with me, and now with Kai! You need to start letting us know about these things!"

The ninja shared a look. They'd been told about Clay's past but not about the fact that he had almost killed two other people, one of which being his own teammate. Clay looked at the floor, too ashamed to really meet her gaze. So she released his face, crossed her arms, and grumbled to herself.

"Y'know Clay," Aaron said, hopping off from the back of the couch, "I think this calls for a dogpile."

Clay's eyes suddenly darkened.

"Absolutely not." He said back, "No."

Yet Clay was unable to prepare himself before Aaron suddenly flung himself at his leader, clinging on like a koala. Macy laughed, then piled herself on against Clay's wheeze of protest. Then came Lance, and then Axl got up from his seat to walk over and lay across the other four.

"Get off of me!" Clay sputtered, smothered in his partner's bodies, "We have guests over!"

Aaron's head poked out from under someone's arm, grin plastered on his face.

"You're right!" He chimed, "You guys wanna join in crushing our boyfriend to death until he cheers up?"

The ninja shared a look, and Jay smiled widely. A couple moments later and all four ninja joined in on the pile, laughter rang throughout the room, happiness bouncing off the walls. Somehow a snowball got shoved down someone's shirt, and shrieks of cold split the laughter.

"Zane you ass!" Cole managed to squawk through bouts of laughter, "I know you did that!"

"Maybe I did," Zane giggled from the body pile, "But I think Lance deserved it for elbowing me."

More laughter.

The door that Lance and Clay had come out of only moments before slid open once again, this time revealing young sensei Wu. Wu watched the group play-fight for a but longer before clearing his throat with an amused smile. At once all movement stopped. Cole slowly turned to look at his sensei, horror on his face.

"S-sensei Wu," She sputtered, "We uh- we finished training and-"

Wu held up a hand and chuckled to himself.

"No I get it. Sometimes just having fun is the best training of all. It's good to see that you're all getting along well."

The group scrambled apart, clambering to their feet to stand at attention for Wu. He laughed quietly at the sight of 9 teens untangling like a ball of spaghetti. He took minute notice of Clay's arm turning a soft, pleasant, purple. A color that usually signified love and happiness in magic users. Wu crossed his arms.

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that Merlock has found the spell necessary to send us all back to Ninjago. So whenever you're ready we can-"

"Seriously?!" Jay shouted, "As soon as we're getting comfortable is the time that you decide to make us leave?"

Aaron nodded furiously, and was joined by everyone the 8 others.

"Oh stop that," Wu grumbled, "Merlock says we have a limited amount of time before there's a possibility the spell could retract into his memory banks."

"Can that happen?" Axl whispered to Aaron, who shrugged.

Cole ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"Well, we've waited long enough. Let's go home, guys."


	12. Chapter 12

The group returned to the lobby with a sort quiet defeat. After finally getting to know each other, the knights and the ninja had to say their farewells, and none of them were particularly good with goodbyes.

Ava was crouched beside Merlock 2.0's podium, connecting wires together from the inside of the mechanism. Robin stood at her side, soldering iron and wrench filling both hands. When he saw Zane come in he waved, and the nindroid returned it with a smile.

There was a fizzle, and a burst of sparks from where Ava was working, and she was done. She stood up and took a step back to admire her work, then gave a thumbs up to Merlock.

"Now or never magic man," She told him, "I did my best, but those wires aren't meant to be stuck together like that. Make it quick."

The holo wizard nodded once and pointed his staff at the closest wall. A burst of orange light shot from it, and the wall shimmered, then seemed to split as an orange portal swirled into existence. Wu dipped into a bow for his old friend.

"Thank you for helping us," He said, "It means a lot, Merlock. It was a pleasure seeing you again."

Merlock 2.0 smiled. "Of course, and maybe we'll see each other again when you return to your proper age."

A small chuckle escaped Wu's mouth. He waved at the knights, then stepped into and through the portal. He was gone.

Cole took a deep breath and turned to face the knights, dipping low into a bow similar to Wu's. When he stood back up, he rubbed the back of his neck. Oh god, he was terrible at goodbyes, this was going to suck.

"Thanks for… the cake," He cringed at his own shitty thanks, "A-and y'know, everything else."

Axl smiled and put a hand on Cole's shoulder. His grip was firm and comforting.

"No problem." The yellow knight said, "Good luck with taking on whatever's facing you out there."

Cole nodded and smiled at his newfound friend, then turned and left through the portal.

Kai was next to say goodbye, and he punched Macy playfully in the arm.

"Hey, next time we see eachother, you can fight me for real. No powers or lighting things on fire."

Macy shoved him in return and laughed a bittersweet laugh.

"It's a deal, Hothead."

The fire ninja gave the knights a peace-sign, then followed Cole's example through the portal.

Now it was Zane's turn. He shook the hands of each knight in turn, and stopped when he came to Robin, instead ruffling the boy's hair. Robin shouted, but didn't move to tell Zane to knock it off. The nindroid knelt down so that he was on eye level with the small mechanic.

"Keep improving Robin," He said, "I can't wait to see what you can achieve in the future."

Robin's eyes glittered with awe, and he nodded furiously. Zane gave a final wave, stepping through the portal and back into Ninjago.

And that left Jay, who had been standing around absolutely not paying attention to anything. So it came as a shock to him that it was his turn to say goodbye and leave. He stepped towards Aaron and gave him a way too complicated high-five.

"Hey, this isn't the last you'll see of me," Jay reassured, "We'll be back soon. I want to bring over some games from my realm and beat you at those too."

Aaron snorted and shook his head.

"Still say you were cheating, dude." He said, only to be met with a loud laugh from Jay.

"S'not cheating if I return to Ninjago before you can pull up any footage of me cheating."

And to prove his point, Jay stepped through the portal.

With all the ninja gone, the orange portal diminished in size, then vanished completely. And just in time too. The wires that had been supporting the magic needed for the spell exploded, sending a panel of metal shooting across the lobby of the Fortrex. Ava huffed, then went to go retrieve it.

"Well that was a thing that happened." Lance said after a few seconds, "I mean, how often do some random people show up in your rolling fortress from another realm. Not often, but I could be wrong here."

He stretched his arms high over his head and yawned.

"Well I'm off to take my scheduled bath. My lavender scent is starting to fade."

Before Lance was able to leave though, Clay cleared his throat. His arm had faded back to its usual blue long ago, but now it slowly flickered back to purple.

"Hey I just wanted to say thanks," Clay mumbled, "For snapping me out of it earlier. It means a lot."

Aaron's eyes narrowed.

"Guys I think we need to dogpile on him again."

Clay laughed for a second, thinking that his boyfriend was joking. Only when the other knights started to advance, hell bent on crushing him, did Clay turn tail and run. He was not one for running away, but he felt that it was a bit of a necessity right now.

Merlock 2.0 chuckled, watching the knights chase their leader down a hallway and across the Fortrex.

He knew that Wu would come back soon. After all, Merlock had invited him over for when they get Ninjago back in order. That was something he had to look forwards to.


End file.
